Rishi Sunak has become the firm frontrunner to become the next Prime Minister of the UK today.

Mr Sunak, who grew up in Southampton, is the only Tory leadership candidate to have hit the 100 MP supporter benchmark ahead of today’s 2pm deadline.

His victory could come just seven weeks after he lost out to Liz Truss in the previous Tory leadership contest.

During that much longer race, Mr Sunak had time to set out his policies and plans for when he became Prime Minister.

READ MORE: Will Southampton's Rishi Sunak be the next Prime Minister? - Live updates as 2pm deadline looms

Rishi Sunak in profile

This is what he said at the time:

Rishi Sunak on Tax and spending

The former chancellor pitched himself as the fiscally conservative candidate and criticised his Liz Truss’s tax-cutting plans as “comforting fairytales”.

He promised to “deliver tax cuts that drive growth”, but to do so in a “way that’s responsible”.

He vowed to take 4p off income tax within seven years.

Rishi Sunak on Immigration

Mr Sunak was supportive of the Government’s controversial Rwanda asylum policy in the summer, saying he would do “whatever it takes” to get it up and running.

He also revealed a 10-point plan that includes the promise of a narrower definition of who qualifies for asylum compared with that offered by the European Convention on Human Rights, with enhanced powers to detain, tag and monitor illegal migrants.

In the last leadership race, Mr Sunak promised to give Parliament control over who comes to the UK by creating an annual cap on the number of refugees accepted each year, albeit one that can be changed in the case of sudden emergencies.

Rishi Sunak on Brexit

Mr Sunak voted leave, and in the last leadership race, pledged to scrap or reform all EU law or bureaucracy still on the statute book by the time of the next general election, and have initial recommendations on whether each law stays or goes within 100 days.

Rishi Sunak on the NHS

He promised a “vaccines-style” taskforce to tackle NHS backlogs, calling dealing with the issue one of his top priorities.

He has plans to expand the network of specialist surgical centres and community diagnostics hubs in order to eliminate one-year NHS waiting times six months earlier than planned by September 2024, and to get overall numbers falling by next year.